I'm teaching a class to high school seniors ... "International film history before WWII" ... and I want ILX's help planning the syllabus.

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It's a sixteen week course, meeting 3x / week for 1hr sessions. I can schedule up to 8 longer, evening screenings. I will have to show all films on DVD or VHS (NTSC), provide writing prompts and a final exam. Most importantly, I need to assign accessible films, easy critical essays, and a basic primer of film theory.

― Remy (x Jeremy), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 19:10 (twenty years ago)

what country are you in?

― j blount (papa la bas), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 19:12 (twenty years ago)

Los Estados Unidos.

― Remy (x Jeremy), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 19:13 (twenty years ago)

If Mr. Smith Goes to Washington qualifies...

― Matt Chesnut (Matt Chesnut), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 19:14 (twenty years ago)

La Grande Illusion?

― phil-two (phil-two), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 19:17 (twenty years ago)

It does, definately. I'm thinking of doing one week of just Capra: clips from Mr. Deeds, Mr. Smith, It Happened One Night, Power of the Press and Lost Horizon.

I'm very interested in providing a thorough grounding in early / silent cinema as well. Especially since that's the majority of the period I'm covering.

― Remy (x Jeremy), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 19:17 (twenty years ago)

the wind!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 19:18 (twenty years ago)

finish with the rules of the game

― j blount (papa la bas), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 19:22 (twenty years ago)

Moreover -- I want to capture cinema in its early technical evolution. Renoir is a MUST, and since I can't show Régle du jeu or Bête humaine (too racy for 17-year-olds, IMHO), I think Grande Illusion's a must. I'll post a list of my 'definates' in a bit.

s1ocki -- is the rape scene in The Wind too much for younger folks?

― Remy (x Jeremy), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 19:22 (twenty years ago)

you should finish with a rules/grand illusion twofer, actually (xxp)

― s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 19:23 (twenty years ago)

i think high school seniors can handle the wind (and i definitely think they can handle regle du jeu)

― s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 19:23 (twenty years ago)

today's 17-year-olds have seen a lot racier stuff

― s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 19:24 (twenty years ago)

Pandora's Box

― The Sensational Sulk (sexyDancer), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 19:24 (twenty years ago)

what russian stuff are you going to show? i wonder what today's teens would think of man with a movie camera

― s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 19:24 (twenty years ago)

nick ray--esp. Rebel w/o a Cause
and if you have no problem with subtitles i would actually go with breathless.

― anthony, Wednesday, 6 April 2005 19:25 (twenty years ago)

is the story of the last chrysanthemum pre-wwii?

― j blount (papa la bas), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 19:25 (twenty years ago)

german expressionism (caligari, nosferatu, lots of fritz lang and murnau)

soviet avant garde (eisenstein, dziga vertov, etc.)

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 19:25 (twenty years ago)

un chien andalusien
las hurdes

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 19:26 (twenty years ago)

o man show strike! you'll change some kids life, save america/the world.

― j blount (papa la bas), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 19:27 (twenty years ago)

Is the raciness your own worry, Remy, or is there some sort of prohibition either assumed or outright built into the course? (I don't know where you're teaching this -- my guess is that it's not actually a high school...)

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 19:29 (twenty years ago)

Battleship Potemkin, for sure.

― andy --, Wednesday, 6 April 2005 19:30 (twenty years ago)

It's at an actual high-school. I'd be fine with showing anything / everything short of hard-core penetration, frankly. But I have to presume that I'm being tested - kept on a short leash - at least initally. I have to submit my curriculum for approval before the class.

― Remy (x Jeremy), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 19:31 (twenty years ago)

http://www.cadrage.net/dossier/aelita.gif

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 19:32 (twenty years ago)

basic primer of film theory.
The Dudley Andrews book is short and easy to read.

― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 19:33 (twenty years ago)

http://www.humanist.de/kultur/literatur/film/harris.jpg

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 19:33 (twenty years ago)

yeah you can never be sure with these things, my junior year we had to scrap a play we were supposed to do cuz some girl's dad didn't want her giving a monologue about how she gave me a handjob. you better believe i cried censorship! at the same time we got to watch the wall in class so you never can tell.

― j blount (papa la bas), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 19:35 (twenty years ago)

strike is pretty funny.

― RJG (RJG), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 19:36 (twenty years ago)

trouble in paradiiiiiiise

my man godfrey cuz of the kattan prototype

― jordi?, Wednesday, 6 April 2005 19:36 (twenty years ago)

http://daily.greencine.com/archives/nosferatu.jpg

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 19:36 (twenty years ago)

yeah blount's right, if it's at an actual high-school, you kinda have to play it safe.

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 19:37 (twenty years ago)

it just takes one parent to freak

― j blount (papa la bas), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 19:38 (twenty years ago)

trouble in paradise and my man godfrey are american

― j blount (papa la bas), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 19:38 (twenty years ago)

rebel without a cause and breathless are post-war (late '50s actually!).

i'd add sunrise, the gold rush, his girl friday, one of the '30s gangster flicks (preferably something with james cagney), and maybe some preston sturges.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 19:38 (twenty years ago)

oh, international!! okay, scratch all but one of those.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 19:39 (twenty years ago)

murnau made sunrise in america didn't he?

― j blount (papa la bas), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 19:40 (twenty years ago)

Yes.

― Remy (x Jeremy), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 19:41 (twenty years ago)

Remy said he's using American films ('night o' capra').

Scarface meets the accessibility criteria, if you can find it on DVD (only packaged with De Palma's version)
The Passion of Joan of Arc is so intense, I'm not sure how well that translates to a bunch of teens, but that's an issue for most silent films.

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 19:43 (twenty years ago)

http://www.artificial-eye.com/video/ART054/main.jpg

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 19:43 (twenty years ago)

Caligari is a classic for high school, every kid in there will think he's the coolest thing that walks the halls afterward.

Also another vote for Potemkin, and Chaplin's Gold Rush (US is a nation!). 400 Blows would be good, as would Breathless.

I think Renoir might be too slow-moving for 17.

And Birth of a Nation (joke).

― nickn (nickn), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 19:44 (twenty years ago)

Yes. I'm also having a big decision about DW Griffith.

I have 48 hr. long sessions. I'll definately get Sunrise, Scarface, and a Chaplin flick in somewhere. Does anybody know anything about early Chinese cinema? Or Indian cinema? I've got a bunch of early '50s films from both of those places, but I'm pretty ignorant of the befores.

― Remy (x Jeremy), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 19:44 (twenty years ago)

400 blows is 1959.
Panthar Panchali is 1951. :(

― Remy (x Jeremy), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 19:45 (twenty years ago)

http://www.tamperefilmfestival.fi/2000/images/kulta.jpg

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 19:45 (twenty years ago)

Gotta run for now but ... keep 'em coming!

― Remy (x Jeremy), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 19:46 (twenty years ago)

Also Metropolis would be good for that age.

Is this a public school in LA, Remy? Is it part of their curriculum or is this an after hours, extra credit thing?

x-post, why the pre-50s limit in a film theory class? Are you going to have a post-50s class following?

― nickn (nickn), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 19:48 (twenty years ago)

http://www.silentfilm.org/products/dvd1.htm - The Goddess, 1934 Chinese silent

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 19:49 (twenty years ago)

those are:
aelita (better than metropolis = soviets on mars plus cool hats etc)
hitchcock = not complete w/o a uk hitch
nosferatu obv (caligari is prob "better" tho)
zéro de conduite!! = abt a rebellion in a school! (nudity and poss gaydity tho) (but it is good for "early evolution as is full of old-skool trix)
l'age d'or

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 19:50 (twenty years ago)

but un chien andalou = where its rilly at!

http://cinemexicano.mty.itesm.mx/imagenes/perro_andaluz.gif

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 19:52 (twenty years ago)

the japanese director you probably want is ozu but the only thing by him i know is 50s

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 19:59 (twenty years ago)

Whatever the final list is, post it, Remy, because at this rate it'll be the best 'intro to the times' shopping/viewing list of its kind!

(Was Man with a Movie Camera mentioned?)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 20:00 (twenty years ago)

Ladislaw Starewicz, pre-war Soviet/Eastern European animator - http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0006L0LG6/ref=pd_sbs_d_1/002-2036872-4954447?v=glance&s=dvd

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 20:04 (twenty years ago)

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And more boxing cats.

― Eric von H. (Eric H.), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 22:33 (twenty years ago)

Also, for easy texts on the subject of film, I'd say that Gerald Mast is still probably the best balance between rudimentary historical facts and easy-to-swallow critical examination.

― Eric von H. (Eric H.), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 22:35 (twenty years ago)

other pandering-vs-confronting-type dilemmas:

http://www.musicals101.com/News/jazz_singer.jpg

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 22:37 (twenty years ago)

http://www.skylighters.org/photos/pinups/estherwilliams.jpg

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 22:38 (twenty years ago)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1420000/images/_1420858_weismuller150.jpg

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 22:39 (twenty years ago)

http://www.danceheritage.org/images/berkeley.jpg

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 22:41 (twenty years ago)

That's a dizzying amount of spread legs.

― M. White (Miguelito), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 22:42 (twenty years ago)

was tarzan's new york adventure pre-wwii?

― j blount (papa la bas), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 22:44 (twenty years ago)

I think The Jazz Singer can pretty safely be skipped.

― Eric von H. (Eric H.), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 22:45 (twenty years ago)

anyway you def need twe of these four:
--- a musical (maybe NOT the jazz singer, despite its dotty intertitles)
---a swimming movie (esther williams just gets in tho maybe her best work is from after ww2 began) (i'll ask dr vick, who is insanely in love w.EW)
--- a dance movie
--- a busby berkeley movie

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 22:46 (twenty years ago)

yeah seriously, touch on the canon if you want/can (might be better for submitting a curriculum if it wasn't all tarzan/frankenstein/charlie chan flix for better or worse), but the more 'wtf's you can draw from your kids the better off you'll be. the main fight you're dealing with (a fight you will almost certainly lose) is that they'll find it boring. cinematic insanity is mos def your friend here.

― j blount (papa la bas), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 22:50 (twenty years ago)

I think that's why 'His Girl Friday' is a good choice, I think or, 'My Man Godfrey'. Screwball's good 'cause it's smart and it's funny and it's fast. You show these kids 'Sunrise' too soon and they'll never see another silent for the rest of their lives. Speaking of silents, my vote for Chaplin, Keaton or Lloyd. An awful lot of that stuff holds up really well and is still amazingly funny.

― M. White (Miguelito), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 22:56 (twenty years ago)

i think bringing up baby cuz of cary grant just going gay all of a sudden. the kids will adore that.

― j blount (papa la bas), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 22:58 (twenty years ago)

pity it's not the 69 steps

― j blount (papa la bas), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 22:59 (twenty years ago)

I like but don't adore 'Bringing up Baby'. For sheer pleasure, you must show 'Trouble in Paradise'.

― M. White (Miguelito), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 23:00 (twenty years ago)

(i meant harold lloyd when i said harry langton)
(and actually i meant langdon when i wrote langton!)

but harold lloyd did safety last and the climbing stuff remains nailbiting - also you get to talk about "reality"!!

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 23:01 (twenty years ago)

yeah harold lloyd a must, plus tell them to 'google him for more info' all innocent like and someone wiseguy will find out about the porno and your kids will think they're 'in the know' and end up more interested as a result. however if they make veiled allusions to it it is important you don't let on you're hep and ruin the illusion/fun for them.

― j blount (papa la bas), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 23:03 (twenty years ago)

Definitely some Julien Duvivier, if you can get a few. Pepe le moko, at least.

Indian cinema:
Ayodhyecha Raja (1931)
Dharmatma (1935)
Devdas (1935)
Sant Tukaram (1936)
Mukti (1937)
Kunku (1937)
Aurat (1940)

Chinese cinema:
The Goddess (1934)
Big Road (1935)
Street Angel (1937)
Plunder of Peach and Plum
Crossroads
Little Toys
A Bible for Women
March of Youth
The Lianhua Symphony
Song of the Fishermen

― Girolamo Savonarola, Wednesday, 6 April 2005 23:08 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, I love L'Atalante, but I think it would be pretty lost on high schoolers.
I loved it and I'm only 18.

― What we want? Sex with T.V. stars! What you want? Ian Riese-Moraine! (Eastern Ma, Thursday, 7 April 2005 00:12 (twenty years ago)

I'm thinking that a student who elects to take a class of this sort (well, I assume it's an option, not a mandatory class) will probably be much more forgiving of all the formal tics that mark "old" films as "old": b&w, hyper-telegraphed acting, slow pacing etc.

It couldn't hurt to show something like The Wizard of Oz, easily the pre-WWII film that any American high school student is the most likely to have seen, 'cause there might be the weird unexpected joy of being able to take this goofy bit of Western Civilzation's mental furniture seriously.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Thursday, 7 April 2005 00:40 (twenty years ago)

plus there's tons of pomo crit paens to it

― j blount (papa la bas), Thursday, 7 April 2005 00:41 (twenty years ago)

safety last is one of the most entertaining films ever, it'll get any class rollicking. totally show it.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 7 April 2005 01:03 (twenty years ago)

How about A Night at the Opera or Animal Crackers?

― Curious George (1/6 Scale Model) (Rock Hardy), Thursday, 7 April 2005 01:08 (twenty years ago)

duck soup too!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 7 April 2005 01:14 (twenty years ago)

Which one has "Hail Freedonia!"? (I'm ashamed to admit I haven't seen much beyond Opera and Races.)

― Curious George (1/6 Scale Model) (Rock Hardy), Thursday, 7 April 2005 01:16 (twenty years ago)

Somebody mentioned the Kino silent film DVD anthologies; in the same vein, I'd recommend Image Entertainment's Landmarks of Early Film, which in one DVD covers most of the canonical dawn-of-cinema stuff, sequenced in such a way that elegantly demonstrates the ever-increasing sophistication of narrative from Edison to Griffith.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Thursday, 7 April 2005 01:16 (twenty years ago)

duck soup (xp)

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 7 April 2005 01:17 (twenty years ago)

yeah duck soup's the war flick.

― j blount (papa la bas), Thursday, 7 April 2005 01:18 (twenty years ago)

if your syllabus is going to be cut/modified by teh faculty/powers that be, you might as well pick everything you want to show and let them worry about whether you can show it. I went to PS in California (granted, a liberal hoity toidy public HS where people above a certain GPA [i.e. Me] were separated from the shop kids; we stayed after class by choice, made ourselves better, etc.) and this seems like the type of class where you probably have a certain calibre of student -- so getting permissions signed (should Un Chien be too hardcore for mature 17 year olds) shouldn't be a problem.

― Jimmy Mod Knows You Eat Your Own Farts (ModJ), Thursday, 7 April 2005 01:25 (twenty years ago)

Gone With the Wind

― Earl Nash (earlnash), Thursday, 7 April 2005 01:50 (twenty years ago)

we watch that in HISTORY class in the south

― j blount (papa la bas), Thursday, 7 April 2005 01:54 (twenty years ago)

Guh! Maybe YOU do...

― Curious George (1/6 Scale Model) (Rock Hardy), Thursday, 7 April 2005 01:56 (twenty years ago)

I remember that my college freshman film class almost unanimously voted for Sunrise as their favorite film from all semester, so I'd imagine that it's probably "safe" for kids. If nothing else, it will remind them of some of those Björk videos, et al.

― Eric von H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 7 April 2005 02:05 (twenty years ago)

Buster Keaton's the general is teh awesome

― Sym Sym (sym), Thursday, 7 April 2005 02:09 (twenty years ago)

What school is this, Jeremy? One of my best friends teaches film and Honors English at a magnet school here. I vaguely remember him saying half the kids just took the course for an easy A (they were the ones who were bored with the black & white films) and the other half were really into it. I usually go out to dinner with him and his boyfriend on Friday nights. We should get together! (Yeah, I know I always say this.) I'll call you in the next couple of days. My cell phones on again, wheee.

I don't think he showed anything as osbcure or interesting as all these fantastic choices, though. And I think there was usually some tie-in with the books they were reading in the English class.

― Arthur (Arthur), Thursday, 7 April 2005 02:13 (twenty years ago)

The Dudley Andrews book is short and easy to read.
Sorry, I added an extra 's'. The dude's name is Dudley Andrew.

― Ken L (Ken L), Thursday, 7 April 2005 02:24 (twenty years ago)

Buster Keaton's the general is teh awesome

-- Sym Sym (shmuel...) (webmail), April 7th, 2005 11:09 PM. (sym) (later) (link)

Ehhh...

Jer, you might want to email my former professor J1m H3aly (sp?) at the George Eastman House, explain your situation, tell him you know me and I liked his class and ask if he could email you a few semesters worth syllabi from it. The class was fairly dependent on the GEH schedule though.

― Alex in TCBY (ex machina), Thursday, 7 April 2005 02:26 (twenty years ago)

And I think there was usually some tie-in with the books they were reading in the English class.

Ack! Flashing back to my Jane Austen cine-lit humanities class!

― Eric von H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 7 April 2005 02:31 (twenty years ago)

xpost - it is the "silent film class" fwiw

― Alex in TCBY (ex machina), Thursday, 7 April 2005 02:31 (twenty years ago)

If you only do one Hitch, show 39 Steps!

― C0L1N B... (C0L1N B...), Thursday, 7 April 2005 02:47 (twenty years ago)

And def. Sullivan's Travels!

― C0L1N B... (C0L1N B...), Thursday, 7 April 2005 02:47 (twenty years ago)

xpost:
I'm rooting for The Lodger or Sabotage.

― Ken L (Ken L), Thursday, 7 April 2005 02:48 (twenty years ago)

Is Thom Andersen's Red Hollywood available on DVD/VHS? It might be interesting to show in conjunction with all of this, especially if you take Blount's Strike! route.

― C0L1N B... (C0L1N B...), Thursday, 7 April 2005 02:53 (twenty years ago)

Red Hollywood is... or obtainable through something like nicheflix.

― Remy (x Jeremy), Thursday, 7 April 2005 02:56 (twenty years ago)

Wow. Does nicheflix have Eadweard Muybridge, Zoopraxographer?

I was only half-serious about Red Hollywood, which I thought was a little boring (and I'm v. interested in both leftist history and film), but there's some great information.

― C0L1N B... (C0L1N B...), Thursday, 7 April 2005 03:00 (twenty years ago)

eleven months pass...

want to read this

― Masked Gazza, Wednesday, 5 April 2006 12:35 (nineteen years ago)

what, no Alexander Nevsky?

― sportsbot, Thursday, 6 April 2006 02:47 (nineteen years ago)

POX

1 lumiere
1 melies
1 hepworth
1 griffith
1 stroheim 1 eisenstein 1 murnau
1 renoir 1 GPO film 1 sternberg

― Real Goths Don't Wear Black (Enrique), Thursday, 6 April 2006 07:19 (nineteen years ago)

(haven't seen any lumiere)
trip to the moon
(ditto hepworth)
broken blossoms
greed
strike!
sunrise
rules of the game
(ditto gpo, sigh argh bad film snob etc etc)
the scarlet empress

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Thursday, 6 April 2006 07:41 (nineteen years ago)

ur not missing much, with the gpo, but (in the uk anyway) they were seen as the troo inheritors of the soviet tradition.

haven't seen hardly ANY griffiths myself, but people: OCTOBER > strike.

― Real Goths Don't Wear Black (Enrique), Thursday, 6 April 2006 07:53 (nineteen years ago)

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